Cross party group demands a fresh look at ‘flawed’ green paper

25/06/18

An All-Party Group dedicated to finding ways to improve children’s health and well being has called for a positive approach to the Government’s Child Mental Health proposals.

Publishing its 10^th report: ‘Mental Health in Childhood,’ the APPG on A Fit and Healthy Childhood described the Government’s green paper on Child Mental Health as ‘a work in progress,’ and said it should be strengthened by:

• Championing early intervention rather than relying unduly upon expensive later-stage crisis services
• Ring-fencing funding for antenatal, postnatal and early years’ mental health provision for children and their parents
• A properly funded CAMHS with statutory referral times and a national in-school counselling service staffed only by professionally accredited counsellors on an Accredited Register
• Compulsory initial training and ongoing CPD for all teachers and other professionals dealing with the mental health of children and young people
• The Designated Mental Health Lead in schools to receive guaranteed remuneration commensurate with the responsibilities of the post
• Government to initiate dialogue with media concerns about the screening of potentially inflammatory and contentious material; combined with Government regulation of social media where appropriate for child safeguarding purposes
• Speedy, responsive new services for students/apprentices embarking upon an FE place, degree or mix of work and training who currently ‘fall between’ sources of available provision
• Mental health service funding to reflect the needs of culturally diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities
• Inter-Departmental collaboration on child health and wellbeing ideally co-ordinated and audited by a Secretary of State for Children, heading a Department for Children and scrutinised by a new Select Committee

Click HERE to download the report.

Introducing the report, APPG co-Chair, Baroness (Floella) Benjamin said:

“We welcome the green paper and some of its core recommendations such as early intervention and counselling services in schools, but green papers are necessarily ‘works in progress.”

“Our report shows that there is much more to do. Now, all people and organisations who care about children’s mental health must help to make the forthcoming legislation as good as it can be by supporting the ideas outlined in our report and especially concerning the internet and smart phones, funding essential school counselling services and ensuring that we don’t have services in some parts of the UK forced to play ‘catch up’. We agree with the Education and Health and Social Care Committees that this challenging policy area should be supported by new initiatives and co-ordination across government.” 

“The ‘new initiative’ that we propose is the creation of a Department for Children, headed by a Secretary of State with responsibility for cross Departmental audit and held to account by a new Select Committee.’”

Vicky Parkinson; Chief Executive of the National Counselling Society welcomed the green paper’s recognition that counselling must be integral to a new national Child Mental Health strategy and agreed with the APPG on A Fit and Healthy Childhood that such a service should be able to rely on sufficient and stable funding:

“As this report states, it is vitally important to get services right now for this generation of children and those who will succeed them. Unfortunately, the pattern has been that the money has just not been there (or not enough of it) so that many schools have had to depend on counselling services being undertaken by lay teachers who are not specifically trained in the field and are therefore potentially doing more harm than good.”

 “A properly funded and quality-assured counselling service is the only way in which we’ll help children to get well and stay well.’”

Lead author of the APPG report, Helen Clark said that the green paper was certainly ‘flawed’ but that damning it outright as having ‘failed’ children in the words of the report recently published by the Education and Health and Social Care Committees was to distort the situation and miss an opportunity:

“In the United States of America, 1 in 5 children present with a diagnosable mental health condition but only 21% of them actually receive treatment. Our Government at least knows the correct direction of travel, so it’s now more a question of taking the next steps forward.”

“The green paper is not perfect but does not deserve to be damned as emblematic of yet another policy ‘failure’. We see it and must improve it, as a foundation for child mental health services that work in the interests of all children and the wider society and within this context, we consider our own new report to be an ambitious – but constructive – way forward.”